Per NHL.com:

Zach Parise could be playing his final season with the New Jersey Devils, and if it is, he’ll do so wearing a “C” on his sweater.

The Devils made the 27-year-old Parise the ninth captain in team history Wednesday. Forwards Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias were named alternates.

The Devils had been without a permanent captain since trading Jamie Langenbrunner to the Dallas Stars last season.

The move comes after Parise signed a one-year contract this offseason. Parise will become an unrestricted free agent after this season, but has said both his agent and the team will work on a long-term extension during the season.

As per the collective-bargaining agreement, Parise can’t sign a new deal until after Jan. 1.

Parise talked about potentially becoming the team’s captain with NHL.com before training camp, saying: “Of course I would like to. I think right now, with our team, we’re in a transition period where for six years, I was always the youngest guy and all of a sudden I’m one of the oldest. We’re at a point where there are a lot of veteran guys who aren’t with us anymore.

“As a player, you try to take a little bit more of a leadership role every year. Whether you have the ‘C’ or not, it’s not as if players are going to look at me different. That’s just now how it is. Players just respect other players whether they got a ‘C’ on their jersey or not.”

The Devils drafted Parise in the first round of the 2003 Entry Draft. In six seasons with New Jersey, the native of Minneapolis has scored at least 30 goals four times with a career-high of 45 in 2008-09. The left wing is coming off a season where he played just 13 games due to a knee injury suffered at the end of October.

Parise is one of five U.S.-born captains in the NHL, joining the Rangers’ Ryan Callahan, the Kings’ Dustin Brown, the Canadiens’ Brian Gionta and the Blues’ David Backes.

Per NHL.com:

The New Jersey Devils have signed star forward Zach Parise to a one-year deal for $6 million, avoiding an arbitration hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

That deal assures that Parise, making his way back from a serious knee injury, is in the fold for the upcoming 2011-12 season and GM Lou Lamoriello told the Bergen Record that the sides will continue to endeavor to get the first-line winger signed to a long-term deal.

Parise earned $5 million last season, a year in which he was limited to 13 games and 3 goals by a knee injury that required surgery. He had been the catalyst of the Devils’ offense the previous four seasons, scoring 146 goals.

According to the rules of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, Parise can not sign another deal with the Devils until Jan. 1, 2012. The parties can negotiate a deal at any time and agree to terms, but it can not become official until Jan. 1.

Even with Friday’s one-year deal in place, Parise remains on schedule to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1

“Once you go to arbitration, you can only get a one-year situation in this case,” Lamoriello told The Record’s Tom Gulitti. “So, really what we have done is avoid arbitration by settling on one year with the understanding and intent to take whatever time is necessary to get a long-term deal.”

Parise told NHL.com on Wednesday that he wanted a long-term deal and had mixed emotions about Wednesday’s arbitration hearing in Toronto.

Both sides agree that the one-year deal signed Friday not only avoids the potential for hard feelings that sometimes arises from the naturally contentious arbitration hearing, but also buys both sides time to iron a long-term deal for the 27-year-old Parise.

“It’s a one-year deal and it’s deal that currently make sense for both the player and the club,” Parise’s agent, Wade Arnott told The Record. “That’s how I’d characterize it.”

It was the Devils who filed for team-elected arbitration back on June 17 to prevent Parise from being able to field offer sheets from other teams when he became a restricted free agent July 1.

Parise was the final free agent on the Devils’ docket and Lamoriello had a bit more financial leeway with which to negotiate this deal after trading Brian Rolston to the Islanders on Thursday, in exchange for Trent Hunter, and clearing almost $3 million of his 2012-13 cap hit.

Per NHL.com:

The news just keeps getting worse for the struggling New Jersey Devils, who’ve lost one of their big guns for the next three months.

The 30th-place team in the League standings will be without star left wing Zach Parise until well into the new year after he underwent exploratory arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Tuesday and had a torn meniscus repaired.

“The good news is that the meniscus is 100 percent intact,” Devils president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press late Tuesday evening. “They didn’t have to do anything to it other than stitch it. It will be a 100 percent recovery and there will be no risk of anything down the road later and that’s the most important thing.”

Parise, a 30-goal scorer in each of the last four seasons, left Saturday’s game in Los Angeles with what was called a lower-body injury and was sent home while the team continued its road trip. The 26-year-old had 3 goals and 6 points in the 12 games he played this season after a 45-goal season in 2008-09 and scoring 38 goals last season.

It’s just another problem for the Devils, who are off to a 3-9-1 start under new coach John MacLean, have several key regulars injured and are tight against the salary cap.

“Adversity is part of life,” Lamoriello told the AP. “As I said earlier, it’s how you handle it and what you do with it. Right now, we just have to do what we are capable of doing. The players who are here have to step up and make the best of the opportunities they are going to get right now.”

The Devils are 1-4-1 on a six-game trip that ends Wednesday in Chicago. Lamoriello said the Devils will use the same lineup that played in Monday’s 3-0 loss at Vancouver.

“Quite frankly we have to come together a little more and overcome what we are going through,” Lamoriello said. “We have been working hard and we just have to work a little harder and work a little smarter.”

Per NHL.com:

The injury bug continues to haunt the New Jersey Devils.

Already mired in last place in the Atlantic Division thanks to a 3-8-1 start, the Devils announced Monday that forward Zach Parise will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery after suffering an injury to his right knee during Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Los Angeles.

Parise, 26, has never appeared in fewer than 81 games in a season since he joined the Devils in the fall of 2005. He has 341 points (163 goals, 178 assists) in 419 NHL games. No timetable has been set for Parise’s return.

The Devils also learned Monday that center Jacob Josefson will miss 6-8 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a detached ligament in his hand. Josefson, a 19-year-old rookie, was held without a point in his first six NHL games. He was New Jersey’s first-round pick (No. 20) at the 2009 Entry Draft.

Besides Parise and Josefson, the Devils are also without defensemen Anssi Salmela (torn ACL), Bryce Salvador (concussion) and Matthew Corrente, who broke his hand during a fight in San Jose last Wednesday.

Does anyone think that Pat Kane should be removed from being the cover model of NHL 10 after his little incident?

EA sports has a history of replacing their cover models. They did so in 2004 when they first chose Joe Thornton then switched to Dany Heatley and then again from Dany Heatley to finally Joe Sakic.

We don’t really know exactly what happened with the whole Kane incident but most likely EA will kick him off their team for 2010.

Let me know who you think the cover model should be. Here are over 100 to chose from. Follow this link: NHL 10 Cover Photos Link

Here is my vote for what the cover should look like instead: